by Dena Christy
"Do you think it would be permitted for me to explore the house?" Cale nodded and Rone moved to follow her. A funny look crossed her face, as if she didn't want him to come with her. He stopped where he was, and she gave him a grateful smile. "I'm just going to poke around. There is no need for you to come with me."
There may be no need, but as he watched her move out of sight, he felt a little strange letting her go off on her own. He'd been with her every second since he'd finally captured her. Perhaps that was why she needed some time alone. And he knew that nothing would happen to her as she moved around the house.
"Your woman will be safe inside the house." Cale spoke and Rone turned to him.
"She is not my woman." That was not to say that he didn't want her, because he certainly did. To call her his woman though, that was rushing things a lot faster than he felt prepared for. He'd only switched from being the one who hunted her to being the one to protect her.
"Are you certain about that?" Cale raised an eyebrow at him. He and Rone moved out of the room and walked the way Cheria had gone.
"I have not known her long enough to make her my woman. We have only just developed a truce between us. When I met her I was hunting her and she shot me with a stunner." He was rather proud of her for that. When he'd first encountered her it would appear that he had all the advantages of strength but she'd used cleverness to compensate for the disparity in their positions and had outwitted him.
Cale chuckled. "So she is clever and resourceful. Interesting." A speculative light entered his eyes, and a quick rush of emotion surged through Rone at the thought of the other man's interest in Cheria.
"She is clever, resourceful and under my pledge of protection." And the significance of what he was saying was not lost on the warrior standing beside him.
The corner of his mouth pulled up and he nodded his head. "And yet you say she is not your woman. Perhaps you better rethink that. I was going to go to the exercise room. Would you care to join me? It has been some time since I have sparred."
Rone nodded and followed Cale in the opposite direction from the one Cheria had taken. Perhaps sparring would stop the thoughts that had started going through his head when Cale had called her his woman.
Cheria was not a Thonaxian female, and he'd always imagined taking a mate amongst his own people. But it did not seem to matter to his body that she was not of his kind. He wanted her, and for now, that was all he would permit himself to think about. Having a possible future with her was contingent on so many things, not the least of which was surviving their present. He would focus on protecting her as he'd promised her he would.
* * *
Cheria wandered around her sumptuous surroundings without really taking in the rooms around her. Landis' home was gorgeous and rich, and as little as a week ago she would have been covetous of what he had. For most of her adult life, since she'd clawed her way out of poverty, surroundings like this had been her goal. And she'd done what she had to do to get the money she needed to make a dream like this happen.
But now, the feeling that had been on the edges of her consciousness when she'd moved into her apartment in one of the richest districts in Tari A'Veloo it hadn't felt as good as she had thought it would. So she told herself it was a stepping stone, and had set her sights on something bigger, grander. The irony was that she didn't miss her apartment at all.
She stepped into the atrium and walked to the edge of the pool. The water shone, deep and jewel like under the enormous skylight. Her reflection shimmered and she saw the worried frown pinching her brows together and turned away from it.
She went over to one of the chairs at the edge of the pool and sat down in it, closing her eyes for a second. The feeling of vulnerability that had been with her at the hotel was only now fading slightly. Hearing the maid scream, knowing that someone had been in their room without them knowing, had scared her. What if it had been the killer?
She had no doubt that Rone would kill to protect her, but at what cost to him? Would he lose his life in his bid to make sure she was safe? Why did she deserve to be protected when there were others much more worthy of it. Already the blood of four people felt like it was on her hands, because ultimately her need to have more money, more things had been fed by the size of the payout for the job. Fifty thousand krills upon receipt of the information and another fifty upon delivery to the seller.
It was supposed to have been a quick job, a simple courier task that she'd done hundreds of times before. And the thought of what she could do with that money, which was more than what she normally made for a job had been the bait that she'd grasped readily. And now the life she'd carefully built for herself, that she'd foolishly thought made her safe, was crumbling around her. Even if she got out of this alive, what was left for her?
Would she ever be safe again or would she spend the rest of her life, however long that was, running? Would Rone be running with her?
The thought of being at his side appealed to her, but not if it meant that he had to sacrifice what he wanted out of life for her. The funny thing was she didn't even know what he wanted out of his life. At first her only concern had been running from him and now it was hiding behind him. Typical of her to make everything about her.
With a noise of disgust she got up out of the chair. Sitting here feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to help anything. They needed to find out who was behind all this, because she agreed with Rone. The killer was a tool and the only way to stop him was to find the one who wielded him. That was the priority and the only thing she should be thinking about. The best way to give Rone his life back, for her to get back to some sense of normalcy, was to remove the threat hanging over them.
She walked around the house until she found herself in Landis' office. She knocked softly on the door and he turned to look at her, the frown on his face smoothing out into a smile. She didn't know how he could look at her, knowing that his father was dead because of her.
"What's up? Did you and Rone get settled okay?"
She nodded, despite the fact that all she'd done to settle in was dump her bag on the floor and flee at the sight of the enormous bed that stood in the room she would be sharing with Rone. All she'd been able to imagine when she'd looked at it was her and Rone naked on it, finishing what they'd started this morning. And the depth of her desire for him had frightened her enough to make her want to have some time to herself.
There was an easy solution, one that would ease the fear inside her. She could ask Landis to be put in a room separate from Rone, but she could not bring herself to say the words. The fact of the matter was, she wanted Rone, she wanted to be with him and she knew herself well enough to know that once her desire for him was sated, it would lessen until eventually it went away. It was the pattern that had been part of her life up until now, and she had no doubt that it would continue to be so.
"Is something wrong?" Landis gave her a funny look and she realized that she'd been standing there, staring. Her cheeks heated for a second as she gave a little laugh.
"No, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking." She turned to leave the room when Landis' voice stopped her.
"You don't have to run away. Stay. I don't get much opportunity to have company. Usually it's just me and Cale. And while he is very intelligent, he isn't exactly inclined toward casual conversation."
The corner of Cheria's mouth pulled up as she turned and went to the chair she'd sat in a few hours before when they'd been trying to find information about the killer.
"I wonder if that is a species trait, since Rone tends to lean toward silence as well." She rather liked that about him, that he was secure enough in himself that he didn't feel the need to fill the silences between them with needless chatter.
"It could be." Landis turned his attention to his computer and typed a few commands in. He cursed under his breath.
"What's wrong?" She looked at the screen but couldn't really see what was the matter. The document he had on the screen looked l
ike incorporation documents to her and from what little showed on the screen it looked straightforward.
"The corporation that issued the bounty on you is fake. No such company exists. But in order for the bounty to be issued, the issuing company has to provide some tangible proof and I've managed to obtain a copy of the documents used as proof of incorporation for the bounty. I'd hope that the paperwork would have some legitimate information on it to lend some authenticity, and to give us a clue into the true identity of the person who has let loose a murderer."
Cheria's stomach sank. Were they never going to catch a break? First there were no records on their stalker and now the corporation responsible for the bounty wasn't real.
"So we're at a dead end?"
"No, we're not. I was able to find another corporation listed on the paperwork that is legitimate. The fictitious corporation was listed as a subsidiary."
"That's good, isn't it?"
"It gives us somewhere to start, but I doubt that company is the one who is after you. It's a company that manufactures long storage food products. I don't think they have any sort of secrets that would be worth killing over. And it is also a subdivision of a larger company. Which doesn't appear to be its parent company either. It's like a fucking tangled up spider web. It's going to take a while to unravel it all."
"If we unravel it all. Perhaps our focus should be on getting the information off my chip."
"I'll get to that soon. It's just that I feel like I'm on the edge of something here. But I don't know if I'm even on the right track. The name listed on the company could have nothing to do with all this, it could have been picked at random." Landis started the screen for second. His mouth pressed together and he gave his head a shake. "Maybe I'm approaching this all wrong."
"How should we approach it then?"
"Tell me about what happened to the hotel when you met your client. Do you know anything about him? A name?"
Unfortunately she knew very little about the man. She felt bad about that, since she didn't even know if the man had a family that would miss him. She tried to harden her heart, because the man clearly chose to steal information that turned out to be deadly.
"I didn't know his name. The news said his name was Barton Randolph, but there is no reason to assume that it was a legitimate one. I was under an alias when I met with him. I'm sure you can appreciate most people in my line of work do whatever it takes to protect themselves. I can tell you that he'd never done that sort of thing before."
"How did you know?"
"He was extremely nervous. Usually there are some nerves involved just by the nature of the business, but he was over the top. I'm sure that he didn't cover his tracks very well when he stole the information in the first place. And I have to assume that he was followed to the hotel. It didn't take long for the killer to arrive after him." Cheria frowned and searched her memory of that day for some clue that would help him find answers. "The password he gave me to load the file on to my chip was Scatha. I don't know if it means anything, but sometimes if a password isn't randomly generated it has a personal meaning."
"Let's see what that yields us." Landis turned toward his computer and put the word Scatha and the name of the food company he'd just been searching into his search program. Several old news articles came up and he opened one. "We may be on the right track."
Cheria quickly scanned the article. It was brief, only announcing that the food company had been awarded the contract to provide food for the penal colony on Scatha. The article was seven years old, so hardly on the cutting edge of information. It didn't seem that significant to Cheria.
"This doesn't really tell us much."
"It tells us that we are on the right track. It can't be a coincidence that your client's password has an association with a corporation linked to the fake one that issued your bounty. What else do you know about Scatha?"
"Nothing."
Landis typed in another search using just the word Scatha, but the information that returned was old and not informative. "There has to be something we're not seeing. Maybe we need another brain in here." Landis reached for his touch screen and double tapped an app with a mouth icon. "Cale, do you know where Rone is?"
There was a pause and for a moment Cheria didn't think that they were going to get an answer. Landis' bodyguard's voice came over the speaker.
"We have been sparring in the exercise room. Do you need to see him?"
"Yes. Cheria and I are in my office."
"Very good. He is showering, but should be almost finished. We will be right there."
A small surge of excitement went through Cheria. Maybe they would be able to unravel the mystery of what was so valuable that someone was willing to kill for it. And if they found that out, it had to lead to who was ultimately responsible for four murders and for hunting her.
Chapter 15
"Come. Landis would like us to go to his office. Your woman is there already." Cale was waiting for him in the exercise room as Rone walked out of the wet room after his shower. He didn't bother correcting his companion on the status of Cheria in his life. They'd already discussed it and it would appear the Cale had not changed his mind about it.
"Did he say what it was about?"
"No. Only that he needed to see you."
His body felt loose and relaxed and he couldn't bring himself to worry over what Landis wanted. He would learn in a matter of moments. Right now, he was far too relaxed to allow concern to bother him.
It had been quite some time since he'd faced an opponent as worthy as Cale. And he was gratified that his time on this planet hadn't softened his fighting skills. In his job as a bounty hunter, there had been little call to test his skills, since his marks usually surrendered without much of a fight. That was the advantage of being so much bigger than those he hunted. The only one who'd put up even a modicum of fighting had been Cheria.
When Cale had asked him to spar, he'd leapt at the chance. He needed the exercise and he wanted to make sure that he was in good enough condition to handle any fight that might be brought to him. Now he knew that five years on this planet had not dulled his reflexes.
Together he and Cale walked to the office and when they went in Landis and Cheria were seated near the computer.
"You wished to speak with me?" Rone walked over to where they were sitting and stood behind Cheria.
"We think we might have a lead. I'm hoping that if we put our heads together we might come up with some answers. Do you know anything about something called Scatha?"
A frown pulled down the corners of Rone's mouth. What did Scatha have to do with all this?
"Scatha is a planet that housed a penal colony."
An excited smile spread across Landis' face. "We've been trying to find information about it but any and all news articles about it stop abruptly six years ago. So do you know anything else about it?"
He did know more about it, but only because of his brother Tage.
"There is a good reason for that. A plague devastated the colony and it is now defunct. A prisoner was not properly quarantined and the illness he carried quickly went through the camp. It happened about six years ago. Everyone on the planet died. My brother Tage was a guard there. He left three months before it happened but he knew a few Thonaxians who went there for work who were not so lucky." And Rone believed that the roots of his brother's illness could be traced to that planet, although his doctors claimed it had nothing to do with it.
"And yet, nothing about that comes up when the planet is searched." Landis sat staring at the computer and chewed on his lip. "You'd think that something like that would make a bigger splash in the news."
"Do you think the information on the chip might have something to do with it?" Cheria leaned back in her chair and Rone was close enough to put his hand on her shoulder. He moved his hand until he caught Cale giving him a knowing grin and he kept his hand by his side.
"I don't know." Landis looked doubtful as he hit a few keys i
n his computer. "A six year old incident on an out of the way penal colony, while tragic, is hardly information worth killing over."
"So what you're saying is we're at a dead end again." Cheria's shoulders sagged and Rone could not keep his hand by his side. He put it on her shoulder and she looked up at him. A smile crossed her face and she rested her hand on his.
"I'm not sure. I do know that we aren't going to find anything more about it by doing searches. And based on the rat's nest of sub-division and subsidiaries associated with the fake corporation on the bounty, I don't think we are going to find any information on our friend on a defunct penal colony."
The corporation that issued the bounty was fake? Rone felt like he'd missed a lot in the time he'd been sparring with Cale. "How did someone manage to get a fake corporation by the bounty authority and your father?"
"They made it look legitimate enough on the surface. Usually my father is more diligent, but I'm sure a million krills will make anyone gloss over a few details."
Cheria made a choking sound. "A million krills? Is that a normal amount for a bounty? If it is then I have been in the wrong business."
"A million krills is not a usual amount. It's not unheard of but something usually reserved for criminals more dangerous than an info-courier."
"Which might explain why someone would send a killer after me. That way they don't have to pay the money. I don't know much about this sort of thing. Would Angis have been able to collect if you'd delivered me dead?"
Rone did not like the thought of her dead, but he could see where she was going. "Some bounties are issued stating the target could be either dead or alive. Yours was not one of them. It specifically said that you were to be delivered alive otherwise the bounty would not be paid."
Enlightenment crossed her face and he could see that her thoughts were going in the same direction as his.
"So whoever my client stole the information from found out about it. And my client's inexperience was such that he may not have covered his tracks as well as he should have, and it's a certainty that he led the killer to the hotel. I'm sure the killer was given instructions to kill both the client and me. He was only able to kill the client. And because I do know how to cover my tracks, the only hope of finding me would be to post a bounty. It worked because not only did Rone find me, it unsettled me enough to send me running from him. So perhaps the bounty was the way the holder decided to flush me out of hiding and have his killer find me." Her face was pale by the time she'd finished speaking. "What I don't understand is why he would kill Xander, Broge and Angis?"
